COP 29: FG commends Kogi’s efforts on climate change

The Kogi State government has been commended by the Federal Government on the efforts it has taken so far towards addressing the impact of climate change.

Balarabe Abbas Lawal, Minister of Environment and Ecological Management, made the disclosure at the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP 29th), an annual United Nations climate change conference.

COP is a platform that provides governments from around the world to discuss and agree on policies and actions towards tackling the climate change crisis.

This year’s conference, which is the 29th in the series, is being held from November 11-22, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Joseph Oluwasegun, Commissioner for Environment and Ecological Management, who led the state’s delegates to the conference, had during the visit to the minister enumerated some of the state ecological problems, noting the steps the state government has taken in mitigating them.

The minister commended the state government’s efforts, promising to discuss the challenges faced by the state with President Ahmed Bola Tinubu with the view to coming to the aid of the state.

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He urged the state government to forward to his office the design and outcome of the report that identified across all the critical ecological sites that require stabilization intervention by the federal government.

He also acknowledged that owing to the meager resources available to the state, it would be difficult to handle interventions in 300 ecological sites, while assuring of support.

Earlier, Oluwasegun disclosed that the state government had engaged the services of a consultant to go round all the 21 local government areas to identify all critical ecological sites that require stabilization intervention, adding that about 300 critical intervention sites were identified.

Oluwasegun pointed out that Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, has after the report engaged the consultant to come up with a comprehensive design of the identified critical sites needing intervention, and that the report has been submitted to the state government.

The state government is collaborating with the World Bank through the Acresal projects and is intervening in three erosion sites across the state.